Choosing Family
by whateverforever12
Summary: Mariana and Callie talk about the Robert and Sophia situation and Mariana reminds Callie of what's really important. One shot.


**Takes place somewhere in 2x12**

"_Sometimes I just wanna die."_

"_If you don't forgive me i'll kill myself."_

"_I just don't think I can do this anymore."_

Callie sat in her bed relaying all that Sophia had said that day, kicking herself for never putting the pieces together before. While on the boat, Sophia had said some concerning things, but the whole situation was new, and Callie didn't feel comfortable asking about it. She still wouldn't, well if they were speaking that is.

"You okay?" Mariana asked from across the room, breaking Callie of her thoughts.

Callie sat up and put her notebook on her nightstand. "Yea I'm fine. Just a weird day."

"What happened?" Mariana questioned, tilting her head to the side.

"Well I had that thing with the judge and he told me that I had to see Robert once a week but right now Stef and Lena have custody of me until further notice." Callie started.

"Ew, so you have to go to their house even after what they did?" Mariana responded.

"I told the judge I would see Robert but no one else and that I wouldn't go to the house. Everytime I went over there I got a weird vibe from Jill anyways, but then I was at work and Sophia showed up." Callie said.

Callie paused, so Mariana asked, "What did she say?"

"I told her to go away and she started apologizing like crazy but I still can't find it in my heart to forgive her for the whole adoption paper thing yet. But then she started saying that if I didn't forgive her she uh...would kill herself." Callie answered.

"Oh my god! That's so dramatic!" Mariana instinctively replied.

"That's what I thought too. I told her she was being dramatic and then put my head down to finish cleaning and I look up and she's in the middle of the street and caused a huge accident." Callie added.

"Wait, so she just walked into traffic?" Mariana asked with surprise.

Callie nodded.

"That's crazy! Is she okay?" Mariana questioned.

"Yeah she didn't get hurt or anything. I called Robert and him and Jill came to get her. She told them and the police that it was an accident and that she just wasn't paying attention." Callie continued.

"Did you tell them what she said?"

"I wasn't going to but I couldn't let her go home and hurt herself because they didn't know." Callie admitted.

"So what's gonna happen?" Mariana asked.

Callie shrugged. "I don't really know. I think they're getting her some help, but Robert took it really hard. He just sat there for 45 minutes."

"You wouldn't think that she would feel that way, ya know? It's like you look at her and she's got a mom and a dad and a beautiful house and everything she could ever want." Mariana replied.

"I guess she's just lonely and this whole situation hasn't really helped. I haven't really helped. I mean she had said some weird stuff about this kinda stuff before and I had a feeling something was off, but when she ripped up those papers I just exploded on her. It's like I lost my filter or something and I'm scared something I said pushed her over the edge." Callie admitted.

"Don't put any blame on yourself. You had-well have-a right to be mad. If she was saying weird things before then it's something that's been building up for a while and eventually it would have led to something like this. It's a good thing that you were there, even if you said something that might have hurt her, at least she's getting help because of you." Mariana comforted.

"I don't want to be mad at her. I don't want to be so mean but I just can't help it. They want me to be happy, so they say, then try to take me away from the place I'm happy in. It was so hard to be happy and now that I am they're trying their hardest to ruin that. It's like he expects me to want to up and live with him because he is my father but that doesn't mean anything to me at this point. He's ruining every chance he had of any sort of relationship with me. They all are. He never tried to make contact with my Mom after what they had, because if he did then he would know about me. He didn't try and I just want him to give me time. It's like I just got out of this tornado that whipped me from house to house for so many years, and now that I've finally gotten settled somewhere, he wants to throw me back into that tornado." Callie ranted, letting out a breath.

Mariana stood up and moved over to Callie's bed and wrapped her arms around her.

"I'm sorry this is all happening. It really sucks. But we all have your back and moms aren't going to give up that easily."

"If I had any say in this, if I had a choice, I would choose you guys in a heartbeat. The system is just so stupid. Why force someone out of a place that they're happy in to throw them into another place just because they share some DNA? It just doesn't make sense." Callie continued.

"When me and Jesus were in the system, we had this really good house, I think it was like the third one or something. They were this cute couple in their 30's probably and they had no other kids. We thought eventually we would get adopted and life would turn around and everything would be good, but all of a sudden our mom was trying to get custody of us again because she claimed she had changed and somehow won the argument and we had to go back there. We weren't there very long because she was still a complete mess, but you're right. They pick DNA over love and don't even ask what we want." Mariana told Callie.

There was no response, so Mariana continued.

"But then we wound up here."

Callie looked up and gave Mariana a smile.

"If you have to live with the Quinns, it's gonna suck," Mariana admitted, "but once you turn 18 the state has no hold over you. You don't have to ask anyone's permission. You can just leave and come back. We'd wait for ya'. The state can't pick your family; You do." Mariana added.

"Even if I come back all preppy and annoying and spoiled with an iPhone 900 and fancy clothes from weird designers in France?" Callie joked.

Mariana laughed. "Well I would just steal your fancy French clothes since I know you wouldn't _really _appreciate just how great they are. And I would just step on your iPhone 900."

"Harsh. Maybe I would go through a weird rebellious phase just to piss him off, so I would come back with black hair wearing a drug rug." Callie said.

"Moms would kill you." Mariana laughed.

"Most likely, but I'll be so hardcore that I won't even care because only losers care about what their parents think." Callie continued.

"Obviously." Mariana replied, glad that they were joking and making light of the situation.

"Dinner!" Lena yelled up the stairs.

"We could start being rebellious now and stop listening to our loser parents and just stay here." Mariana joked.

"Well I don't know about you but I'm pretty hungry and I'll be damned if I let Jesus eat all the lasagna. Bye!" Callie said, quickly getting up and running downstairs to the rest of _her _family.

**I don't know much about the foster care system and I know they probably wouldn't give Ana custody again but just pretend, this is fiction after all lol. Thank you all for reading!**


End file.
